There are few better artistes on the stage today that can hold an audience
in the palm of their hands than German chanteuse Ute Lemper.

A few months ago I had the pleasure of attending a Lemper concert held at
the Royal Northern College of Music Theatre, Manchester. As part of her 2012
‘Last Tango in Berlin’ tour Lemper was accompanied only by pianist
Vana Gierig and Marcelo Nisinman on bandoneón. The packed Manchester
audience sat enthralled under the spell cast by this exceptionally talented
cabaret singer. Like many of her fans in the audience I became captivated
by Ute Lemper in the late 1980s with her recordings of German cabaret songs
from the Weill-Brecht era. Seeing her live in concert was like fulfilling
a long-held ambition in the manner of a ‘bucket list’ of things
to do before one dies.
The next best thing to seeing Lemper perform live is to listen to her on CD.
I welcome her latest offering titled Paris Days, Berlin Nights released
on the Steinway & Sons label. The disc has 13 tracks but we hear 14 cabaret
songs as track 3 is a pair of Weill songs. The sung words are in six different
languages and the music comes from the pens of an international cast of composers.

The German-born songstress now based in the USA is joined on this recording
by her German compatriots the celebrated Vogler Quartet together with the
multi-talented instrumentalist Stefan Malzew on piano, accordion and clarinet.
He also prepared the arrangements.

Édith Piaf’s singing of the French songs epitomises the smoky
world of chanson de cabaret. Concerning a prostitute walking the seedy
Rue Pigalle with the excess of her life indelibly etched on her face
the song Elle Fréquentait la Rue Pigalle (Her beat was the Rue
Pigalle) is by Louis Maitrier and Raymond Asso. Here Lemper creates a passionate
and sultry atmosphere so evocative of the decadent Parisian quarter. Michel
Emer’s L’Accordéoniste (The Accordion player) is
another forlorn tale about a prostitute who falls in loves with an accordionist.
This is a generally upbeat song with Lemper producing strong elements of tension
and apprehension. With music and words by Jacques Brel Ne me quitte pas
(Do not leave me)is an intense love song with the unhurried Lemper
repeatedly pleading “Do not leave me now.”

Lemper has chosen a number of songs that exemplify the decadence of Berlin
Kabarett scene in the Weimar Republic years. It is not difficult to
imagine the bawdy smoke-filled cabaret rooms of Berlin between the wars. A
splendid collaboration by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht, Surabaya Johnny
is a popular song from the 1929 musical comedy Happy End. As Lillian
who is disappointed that her abusive lover Surabaya Johnny has told
her lies and has gone back to a life of crime Lemper is deeply intense amid
the appealing and near-hypnotic rhythms. Continuing straight on the same track
is the justly celebrated Die Moritat vom Mackie Messer (Mack the Knife)
from Die Dreigroschenoper (The Threepenny Opera) also by Weill and
Brecht. Lemper introduces the gangster Mackie Messer (aka Mack the knife)
who steals, commits murder, arson and rape. Noticeable here is the striking
clarinet part played by Stefan Malzew. Tragedy imbues Der Graben (The
Trenches) by Hanns Eisler and Kurt Tucholsky. Here Lemper poignantly expresses
a mother’s heartbreaking love for her son who has been conscripted into
the army only to die in the trenches. Next Hanns Eisler collaborates with
Bertolt Brecht in Über den Selbstmord (On suicide). Singing in
English Lemper creates a dark and achingly sad atmosphere around the text
that deals with committing suicide by throwing themselves off bridges into
rivers. Next another Eisler and Brecht song, Die Ballade vom Wasserrad
(The Ballad of the Millwheel) taken from the play Schweyk im Zweiten Weltkrieg
(Schweik in the Second World War). In the rather puzzling and lengthy text
it seemed to me that the constantly revolving millwheel serves as a metaphor
for mankind’s propensity for lifelong conflict. Lemper moulds a dour
and uncompromising character to the song that cleverly builds in weight and
emotional tension.

Ástor Piazzolla’s tango music seems enduringly popular easily
embodying the mystery and seduction of seedy backstreet bordellos in the Argentinean
seaports of Buenos Aires and Montevideo. To a text by Horacio Ferrer the first
Piazzolla song La última grela (The Last Bordello Prostitute)
is rhythmic and darkly disquieting. To her own English text Lemper is sensuous
and stiflingly sultry with the captivating melody of Piazzolla’s amorous
Oblivion. Buoyant and briskly rhythmic Yo soy María (I
am Maria) from the tango opera María de Buenos Aires to a Ferrer
text, Lemper depicts a bawdy nightclub singer who feels invincible when dancing
the tango.

From the time of the horrors and depravations experienced in Russia during
the Second World War Nikita Bogoslovsky (given as Bogolovsky on the CD) has
penned a compellingly beautiful song Temnaya Noch (Dark is the Night).
Vladimir Agatov’s text relates the tale how a young Russian soldier
about to go into combat in the Steppe at night is expressing his heartrending
feelings to his wife and baby. Lemper seems very much at home in the Russian
song painting a poignant world of darkness and melancholy. Here I was especially
impressed by the playing of the prominent string quartet part and Malzew’s
haunting clarinet.

Controversial Polish born, Israeli singer and composer Chava Alperstein is
famous for writing socially conscious songs. Justly renowned are her evocative
Yiddish settings Ikh shtey unter a Bokserboym (I stand beneath a Carob
tree)and Stiller Abend (Silent Night). To what was to me an
unfathomable text Ikh shtey unter a Bokserboym (I stand beneath a Carob
tree)the expressive Lemper produces a sense of aching nostalgia. Here
Malzew’s clarinet imbues a distinct feel of the Jewish klezmer to the
proceedings. In Stiller Abend (Silent Night) Lemper starts off singing
in English and continues in Yiddish. With writing that gradually increases
in tempo and intensity I was struck by Malzew’s klezmer clarinet solo.

On Paris Days, Berlin Nights the engineers for Steinway & Sons
are in fine form: highly satisfying. I am pleased to report that full texts
with English translations are provided. The minor issues that no track timings
are provided and that the booklet notes are extremely poor are really the
only faults.

This is Lemper the mature performer presenting a collection of cabaret songs
that with two or three exceptions is not as commercial as some of her previous
releases. On the whole the selections do not demonstrate their quality straightaway
and will require repeated plays to grow on the listener. Lemper uses the more
intimate accompaniment of only four/five players as opposed to the more traditional
jazz ensemble that she used on her earlier releases. As a multilingual artiste
it is typical of Lemper to sing in a number of languages; even switching tongue
mid-song. Given the ease with which Lemper can steamily ramp-up the sex appeal
it’s not difficult to imagine this Münster-born temptress as a
film actress. With her assured, smoky-toned voice and elevated talent for
expression one gets a strong sense that Lemper is not only performing her
songs, she is virtually living them.
Michael Cookson